The Love of the Earth
by Dragongirl224
Summary: A girl named Jacinda has been looking for her soulmate for 300 years, but heres the thing; she always finds him, only to have him die just out of reach. With some new friends and an oath to never let him die again, can she survive his death one more time?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The only characters I own are Selena and Jacinda**

The war between dragons and vikings is long and complicated. It started when the vikings came to Berk, and two Night Furies snatched a baby Viking from her mother's arms. This wasn't senseless, though. Once every thousand years, an Earth Dragon is found by a random family of dragons. An Earth Dragon can manipulate the elements, but requires a human partner to magnify and share his or her powers. The Night Furies had found the egg, and had to find a same-gender partner for the newly hatched dracling. The Vikings were the closest source for a newborn female, so they took me.

My name is Jacinda, I have light blue eyes with gold flecks, long gold/red hair, and I am about five feet seven inches. I am bonded to Selena, the fifth Earth Dragon on the planet. We both have shared longevity, and have been alive for over three hundred years. We both can control and contort the five elements of earth

"Faster!" I hollered over the roar of wind in my ears. I was sitting on Selena's smooth back, her wings beating steadily on either side. As dragons go, she was a fairly large one, only a little smaller than a Monstrous Nightmare. She had no visible scales, smooth wings and no mouth. She could produce a growling or roaring sound through an organ in her upper forehead. She was a pale brown, and had a skin tone star in the middle of her forehead. Her horns were the same colour, and extended in a smooth curve from the crown of her head, with another bit curving out from that. A single ribbon the same pale skin colour extended from each of her horns, waving back and forth at the same rate, no matter what the wind. She stuck her nose up, flapping harder to pull us up towards the belly of the clouds, higher, higher. Then down. I threw my arms into the air, the only thing holding me into the makeshift leather saddle my feet and the suction Selena produced with the wind to prevent me from falling. All of a sudden, Berk came into sight through the clouds, glowing in the twilight. Selena and I lived in the mountain that used to be inhabited by the Queen Dragon and her workers until the Vikings came and shooed them out last month. I had seen him then. The One I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with. I had met him about four times before now, each time he had a different form, a different name, same soul. He kept dying on me. And coming back; he was always stubborn. I had been meaning to find him ever since then, but I was scared. What if he didn't feel the same way about me? That this last reincarnation didn't want anything to do with me? Tomorrow. I'd go tomorrow.

"He won't die this time." I promised myself, Selena being my witness.

...

"Snotlout! Get up! You're going to be late again!" Snotlout blinked and pulled his pillow over his face.  
"Don wanna." he slurred. The nightmares were getting to him.

He was protecting something, something so precious he would give his life to save it. A girl, he thought. Every time the thing he was protecting her from would slip by him and kill the girl. Every time it felt like something inside him broke.  
"Snotlout! You will get up now!" shrieked his mom, dragging him out of his bed.

"Alright alright! I'm up mom!" he pulled himself off the floor and changed into his clothes, his mom slipping out almost as silently as she had came. It was a mystery to Snotlout how such a big woman could move so quietly. He jogged outside towards the arena where he and his friends had trained to fight dragons, and had now been converted into an arena for the Vikings to connect with their dragons. He whistled, and his Monstrous Nightmare, Fire, picked him up in his front claws and carried him to the arena. All his friends had gathered with their dragons outside the arena and were talking seriously about something that cut off quickly as Fire set Snotlout down.

"You okay, Snotlout? You look..." Rufnut didn't finish her sentence. Snotlout knew he looked horrible, mostly because the nightmares that had started the day after getting rid of the dragons nest drained him of all energy. He also periodically blacked out, finding himself and Fire flying over the ocean.

"Yeah. I look like dragon dung. Thanks for noticing." Fire pushed his nose up against Snotlout's side, offering any comfort he could. Since the nightmares, Fire was the only one Snotlout's temper didn't flare up around. Tufnut opened his mouth to say something, when a low frequency humming filled the air, and something blocked out the sun for a moment. The humming stopped, and a dragon and rider landed on the land between the arena and the docks. The dragon was like nothing Snotlout had seen before; pale brown and perfectly smooth. But the rider was an entirely different matter. Somehow, he knew that this was the girl he was trying to protect in his dreams. She had long reddish hair, and was almost as tall as he was. But the most striking thing about this girl was her piercing blue eyes.

She swung herself off her dragon, and the two stepped towards the arena. Once she caught sight of Snotlout, her eyes narrowed and her fists clenched. Did she hate him when he so clearly knew that on sight he loved her? The ground started shaking, and everyone was staggering around to find a hand hold except for the girl and her dragon. Snotlout grabbed Fire's nose horn for balance, and noticed for the first time that his dragon was staring at the pale brown dragon like Snotlout was undoubtedly staring at the girl.

The drill for earthquakes was to gather in the arena, as there was nothing to fall down and crush someone.  
Astrid waved a hand in front of his face, yelling something at him. It seemed so far away. Like it didn't matter. Someone, probably Fishlegs, grabbed Snotlout by his arms and dragged him into the arena. The girl seemed to relax a bit, and the tremors stopped, and she and her dragon headed for the arena. Everyone moved aside and stared at her as the last few people joined the group in the arena. She walked right up to Stoik, talked earnestly to him for a few minutes, and he nodded. Stoik clanged his shield against the nearby wall and instantly had everyone's attention.

"This is Jacinda. She has come to tell us about herself and her dragon. She also has information about dragons that live farther away than Berk."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own any characters except Jacinda and Selena, and I don't own the song Ordinary Day by Vannessa Carlton. I'm jus' trying to have some fun with a dragon story ^_^ Enjoy chapter 2!~**

A ripple of excitement went through the crowd. Selena and I made our way to the front. I was still shocked at how fierce my reaction had been to seeing Him again. He looked just as he had in his first life, the one where I found him making out with Tasma. Tasma who was responsible for every time He died, for turning Him into something else right before. His name was Ark at that point.

I was at the front of the group of vikings now, and I cleared my throat. I told them about how I was taken three hundred years ago, the ensuing war, and I explained Selena's powers and how I shared them. I didn't say anything about Him. I wanted to explain it to Him first. Why I was so ticked with the fact that He kept dying and leaving me alone. Once I finished my story, there was a silence.

"If none of you have questions, I'll start explaining the dragons outside of Berk," a hand raised. It was Him. I clenched my teeth. "Yes?" He looked confused, and a bit concerned.

"Um. How the heck could you live for three hundred years?"

"Earth magic. Selena and I will live for a thousand years, then another egg will be found and hatched, and we won't be needed any more," I looked around. "Any other questions?" I slowly unclenched my jaw, knowing that it wasn't this version of Him I was angry with. No one raised their hands.

I started by explaining the dragons that were nearer to home that nobody had seen. The Sicklejaw with it's three foot long teeth. The Bowback with spikes it could fire over a hundred feet. There weren't that many around here that they hadn't met, so I moved on to the other continents. I painted a picture with words of Asia, with vast bamboo forests, and snake-like dragons that were called upon for wisdom and advice. The massive four-legged dragons of Europe that were constantly defending small cities and towns nestled is icy mountains and foothills from bears the size of houses. How North America had dragons that taught remarkable magic to the Indian shamans that lived there. African dragons with their yellow and gold scales hot to the touch, even long after the creature had died and it's pelt was hanging outside a house as a trophy. South American dragons that were masters of hiding and camouflage. That took me full circle, and I fell silent. The vikings were quiet, thoughtful. One boy in the crowd, a scrawny thing with a peg leg, looked extremely excited at the prospect of new dragons.

Selena sat down and started up a mid-range hum that all the dragons nearby leaned towards her. "Oh. Right. Selena is sort of like a non-evil version of that Queen Dragon you killed. She has the ability to call on any dragon, and then that dragon has a choice. Help Selena, or not," Selena stopped her humming, and the dragons relaxed. I hadn't realized it, but my story telling had taken us all the way from mid-morning to dusk, the sun setting in a glorious burst of orange and red. "Is there anywhere we could stay for the night before we head back to our caves?" A female viking raised her hand.

"You can stay with Astrid and I." The blonde girl standing beside the older viking nodded vigorously. I smiled.

"Thank you very much." I'd find a way to repay them.

…

Later that night, I awoke to find Him staring in the window. I was sleeping in; a pale green spare room in the blonde girl, Astrid's, house. Unfortunately, it was on the bottom floor. I threw off the covers and strode to the window in my sturdy cotton tank top and shorts. I opened the window so fast it sacked the boy in his forehead.

"Ow! What was that for?" he held his head in his hands, reeling back a bit.

I smirked. "For staring at me while I was sleeping, durr."

He straightened and I got a clearer look at him. He had a strong jaw, and low set eyebrows. His eyes were a shade of light green, and he had unruly black hair. "What's your name?"

"I'm Snotlout," he said, seeming proud of the fact.

"I need to talk to you, Snotty," I said, swinging myself out the window. "Come on. You waiting for Christmas?" I walked around the house to where Selena was sleeping, Snotlout trailing behind, muttering about unnecessary nicknames. As soon as I rounded the corner of the house, Selena was there, rubbing her face against my arm. I cooed at her and rubbed her star. I turned back to Snotlout. The similarities between him and Ark hit me like a knee to the gut again, and I clenched my fists.

I swung myself up into the saddle and glanced at Snotlout. "You coming?" He looked at me strangely.

"Um where am I supposed to sit?" I rolled my eyes.

"Why do you think I'm sitting so far forward in the saddle? Behind me smarty." He gulped, and then swung himself up behind me.  
"Uh, one problem, Jacinda. Where am I supposed to hold on?"

I sighed. This was the slightly awkward part. "Try my waist." He tentatively rested his hands on my waist. I clicked my tongue and Selena took off. Behind us, there was a low growl, and a Monstrous Nightmare was right on Selena's tail.

"That yours?" I raised my eyebrow; though I'm sure the effect was lost on him as I was facing away from him. As soon as we had taken off, his hands had tightened on my waist, and I'm not going to lie, it felt nice, like all the other times he had left me didn't matter. I felt him nod, his chin resting on my shoulder.

"Tell him it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Can't your dragon do that humming thing and stop Fire?" I shook my head.

"He's protecting the human he is bonded too. He'll never listen to her. You have to tell him." I felt him twist towards his dragon, and faintly heard him holler something about it being okay, and that he was fine. Fire backed off a bit, but kept following us. I knew that as Snotlout's dragon, Fire would be bonded to Selena as I was to Snotlout. Selena twisted her head and looked at me from the corner of her eye, trepidation clear in her gaze.

I took us down into a clearing far into the island, and Selena landed by a fallen log. As soon as we landed, Snotlout took his hands off my waist, and I couldn't help but feel a little hurt.

Fire set down next to us and growled a little. I let Snotlout off first, and he went right to his dragon and started trying to calm him. Selena made a higher frequency hum, purple energy gathering above her head. Fire was looking at her strangely.

The moon was full, and it lit up the valley quite nicely. It was then that I saw the horrible dark circles under his eyes. I don't know how I missed then before...

I was snapped out if that particular train of thought by Snotlout.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" I pulled myself up onto the log and patted the empty bark beside me. He sat next to me, and we sat in silence for a few seconds.

"Do you believe in reincarnation?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"What reincarnation is."

I sighed. Clearly we were going back to the basics. I hoped his suppressed memories would kick in as I started explaining. "When I stopped aging, I was seventeen. At that point, Selena and I were supposed to find soulmates. The one person, or dragon, we're supposed to spend the rest of our lives with. Our protectors, friends. I found Ark," I could see Snotlout's eyes lifting up in recognition. At least we were getting SOMEWHERE. "Somehow, Tasma, a psychic, got her claws into him, and brainwashed him. She killed him in front of me, and Selena barely managed to get me away," I could feel the tears coming. It had been horrible. "I loved him, and when he was gone, I thought I was going to die too. The only thing that kept me from killing myself was Selena. Later, I found Ark again. But he was known as, get this, Hairygut." Snotlout had been looking very concerned, burst out laughing.

"Hairygut? That's ridiculous."

I smirked. "I don't know why you're laughing. You were Hairygut." Snotlout stopped laughing.

"You keep coming back, you look different, have a different name, but it's always you."

His eyes widened. "So I keep dying?"

"Yup," I made a popping sound with the 'p' "but not this time. I won't let you." I really looked at him for the first time, and I could see that he was troubled by the news, but who could blame him. He looked up at me rather shyly, and tentatively reached out to take my hand. I knew it was coming, but it was a shock to him when the small static shock traveled from where our hands connected. In brief flashes, I saw our previous lives together as he saw them. I saw myself through his eyes, and I was surprised. To him, I looked beautiful. I knew he was seeing my time without him, how empty it seemed.

I gently withdrew my hand.

"I know it must seem overwhelming, you should get some sleep." I said softly. He just nodded and slid off the log to the ground. I slipped down beside him. Our dragons hovered nearby, eyeing each other warily. Snotlout lay down, looking up at the stars, thinking, I suppose. "You used to say that my singing helped you sleep. Do you want me to?" He turned and looked at me.

"I'd like that," He did a double take. "I mean, Uh, only if you want to." so he was still playing the tough guy.

I smiled and started humming.

When I reached a certain point in the melody, I started singing.

"Just a day just an ordinary day. Just trying to get by. Just a boy just an ordinary boy, but he was looking to the sky." Selena joined in, humming along. She made piano sounds, while I sang. By the time I got to the chorus a second time, Snotlout was fast asleep. I gently pulled his head onto my lap and smoothed the creases in between his eyes and brushed a few strands of hair off his face. He looked so much more innocent asleep than awake, more kind.

…

Snotlout woke up to early morning sunlight shining through his eyelids and the sound of birds chirping to the new born day.  
He opened his eyes, and saw Fire and Selena wrapped around each other in the shade of a pine tree. The memories of last night came back to the surface. He had remembered quite a few previous lives, and how much he loved Jacinda in each.  
Jacinda! Where was she?

That's when Snotlout realized that his head was resting on something too soft to be ground. He glanced back up towards the log and saw Jacinda, fast asleep with her head resting on the log. His head was in her lap.

"Well this is just great. Peachy even." he muttered darkly. He had slept better last night than he had in the past month. Jacinda shifted her weight slightly and yawned. Snotlout quickly sat up. Jacinda opened her eyes and smiled.

"Sleep well? Those nightmares shouldn't bother you anymore."

"How do you know about the nightmares?" The dragons shifted and untangled themselves and stretched like oversized cats.  
Jacinda grinned. "I saw it when you touched my hand. You can't hide anything from someone inside your head babe," even though the 'babe' was casual, it made Snotlout's heart flutter a bit. "We better get back to the village, before we're missed too badly." They climbed onto their respective dragons, and flew back to town with wingtips touching.

They landed in the centre of the town, where Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, the twins, and their dragons were standing and talking about dragon training. Well, the humans were talking about dragon training, the dragons were eating fish.

Selena landed first, light on her feet, then Fire, making a huge thud. Snotlout and Jacinda hit the ground at the same time, and he introduced her to his friends.

Rufnut grinned. "Where were you two?"

Her brother started singing. "Snotlout and Jacinda sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-" He got cut off by Snotlout tackling him. The dragons at the fish trough looked at the brawl with faintly amused expressions.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I still don't own any characters except Jacinda and Selena. Dang copyright laws *pout***

Rufnut couldn't stop laughing as her brother got hit in the nose.

"Wow. Two losers fighting. Five bucks on Snotlout!" Astrid grinned.

"I'll take you up on that." Jacinda rolled her eyes and the ground beneath the two boys transformed into two huge hands that held them apart.

"Now I realized that Snotlout could be immature, but I didn't think that this town could hold more than one annoyance."

Rufnut leaned towards Hiccup. "I like her!" she stage whispered. Snotlout looked quite offended.

"Hey!" the two boys said at the same time.

"I'll let you down, if you behave," she gave the two a stern look, then burst out laughing and the hands set them down. Selena and Fire rolled their eyes.

…

I went and talked to the tribe chief, Stoik, about the possibility of living in Berk.

"We'd be glad to have you! I'll get a building crew on making you a house right away. Until then, where are you going to sleep?" I shrugged.

"I'll find somewhere. I saw a cave when I went flying last night. I'll stay there."

"Nonsense!" Stoik exclaimed. "I'm sure Astrid and her family will be more than happy to put you up at their house!"

"Okay, but I insist that I get to run a dragon mythology class." I folded my arms across my chest. "Deal?"

Stoik gave a chuckle and stuck out his hand. "Deal." we shook on it.

"There's one other thing you need to know..." I explained to him about Snotlout and I, all the past lives, and the significance of the fact that Tasma would come back for him. Stoik shook it off, insisting that it wasn't a problem.

"The real problem is that another group of vikings is on their way here to fight us, and we need as many fighters as we can get." I nodded.

"Sounds like Tasma's handiwork. Do these vikings have big bears as pets?"

"I have no idea," Stoik said thoughtfully, stroking his beard. "All I know is one of our dragons came back with a viking helmet that isn't one of ours."

"Can I see it?" he nodded and took me into the council hall, where a viking hat with a string of runes along the bottom half. The horns were corkscrewing in random directions. I recognized the writing, and I changed the lettering so it was legible to the vikings here.

"'heart of the bear, strength of the bear, claws of the bear'?" I nodded.

"They've been Tasma's favorite pawns for a while now. Her psychic abilities allow her to alter perceptions, memories, and wills. These particular vikings were brainwashed into becoming allies with the big bears that ate their children and flattened houses."

…

While Jacinda was talking to Stoik, Snotlout was explaining the whole previous lives thing to his friends, who were quite shocked, but believed him.

"So in all these past lives, there's been a psycho chick killing you?" Hiccup asked, raising an eyebrow.  
Snotlout nodded. "Apparently. I don't remember much of it, though."

"Is she gonna run a class?" Tufnut asked, rubbing the beginnings of a bruise on his cheek that Snotlout had given him. Snotlout shrugged.

"I dunno. If she did, it would probably be about those other types of dragons she mentioned." Fishlegs and Hiccup looked extremely excited.

"I've gotta go add more pages to the Dragon Manual!" Fishlegs exclaimed, running off the great hall. Snotlout and the twins shook their heads.

"Nerd." They said at the same time.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Do I really need to say it again? I only own Jacinda and Selena. Also, Skullette's story (read the chapter, that name will make sense in a bit) is written by my friend, CrazyNutSquirrel, and when she starts posting it, It'll be in my favorites**

Stoik had told me that the storm front moving in would hinder the party they had planed, and he wanted me to move it out of the way. Of course, this was most liky that they wanted to decorate, and moving the storm front was the best way of sending me off. Of all the elements that Selena and I could bend, clouds were the hardest to get right. That's how we ended up high in the sky, purple energy crackling, burried deep in the storm front, trying to split the clouds so they flowed around Berk.  
It was going well. The clouds were moving at a nice pace, splittig to go around he island. Selena's humming got a little deeper, and the clouds finally fully split and started moving nicely. I whipped the back of my hand over my sweaty forehead and patted Selena on the neck.  
"Good job girl!"  
My head snapped up as I heard a girls voice hollering at me. There was a girl with auburn hair waving at me from the back of a Nader clutching a deep green Night Fury in her claws.  
Selena pumped her wings, driving them upwards, and then used the wind to glide them over to the girl. As soon as we were in ear short, I said "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. What was that?" Selena stopped about five feet away from them and let the air buoy her and keep her hovering on the spot.  
"I said 'hello, I'm Skullette.' I was wondering if you'd like to rest at my cave? It isn't too far from here and I notices you looked tired." I gave a small smile.  
"That would be great, thank you. I'm Jacinda, and this is Selena. I assume you're a viking from Berk? I haven't seen you there."  
"I've kinda been trying to protect my night fury from my dads"'s groncle, so I've been living in a cave with Andraemon and Violet." Skullette smiled, but her eye twitched.  
"Alright, lead on, then." said Jacinda.

I told her my story, and she told me hers, our dragons were fooling around in the back of the caves.  
"So do you know why Snotlout was so grumpy?" Skullette asked, ducking to avoid a fireball from the back. "It didn't look like that was his normal state of being."  
I shook my head. "It's not. He's been having nightmares since the dragons nest. From what I saw, he was trying to protect me from something."  
Skullette had leaned a little forward, like I was telling a big secret.  
"Oh... Is he okay now? And what was he trying to protect you from?"  
I gave a little shrug. "It looked like a shadow, with blonde hair. That would be Tasma."  
"That chick sounds worse than any electric eel a drogan would try to avoid." again she had to duck under a fire, it was from Violet thus time. I reached out with my right hand and caught the wad of fire. I shaped it into a sphere and started passing it from hand to hand.  
"Soooooo... You know where Tufnut disappears to?" I raised an eyebrow, not paying much attention to the fire any more, but I kept passing it back and forth.  
Skullette looked at me very seriously. "Promise you won't laugh at him?" wiggled my eyebrows.  
"Only if you don't laugh at Snotlout."  
"Deal."

Selena and I landed in the main square, and surely enough, it was all decorated. Everyone was outside waiting for me, dragons and all. Snotlout had on his best yak fur, which looked worse on him then his normal clothing. Gobber and his dragon, a Boneknapper dragon, helped me off Selena. Completely unnecessary, but nice anyway. The crowd burst out in cheers, and I wondered why they bothered throwing this party. I mean, ya, I can bend elements, but why all the fuss?  
Everyone gathered around the arena, and sat down next to Snotlout and his friends. My friends now. Stoik stood up at his chair and announced that there would be a talent in my honor.  
I turned to Snotlout "Why?"  
"Why what?"  
I gave an exasperated sigh. "Why all the fuss?"  
"Because you're something new and exciting. You know all about different dragons, you bend the elements to your will. There's a whole list." he whispered back.  
"Are you going to do something?" I asked coyly. Rufnut and Tufnut gafawed and Astrid and Hiccup chuckled.  
The fires lit outside of the arena were doused and the show began with Gobber telling his story about him and the Boneknapper. Said Boneknapper was acting out bits and pieces of it behind him. Astrid and Hiccup played a song, Hiccup on a flute, and Astrid whaling on the drums. We took a break for food, Snotlout and the twins drifting towards the desert table, me heading for the table laden with bread and soup.  
"Having fun are we?" I could tell Skullette was under the table because my powers let me sense what was around me in a six foot radius.  
"Jacinda! How did you know...?"  
I smirked. "How about I use this as an excuse to come visit you sometime soon?"  
I grabbed a bun and a bowl of hot tomato soup and made my way back to where Snotlout and the twins were shoving their faces with cake, and Astrid and Hiccup were talking in ernest about dragons.  
"Where did you go?" Snotlout wanted to know.  
I raised an eyebrow at him, looking from the cake to his face and back. He guiltily set it down and wiped the icing off his face.  
"Better."  
The torches were dimmed again, and the next act came out.  
Astrid and Hiccup were called down by a girl in a hooded cloak to play their song again. I knew the girl was Skullette but no one else seemed to, including Tufnut.  
She had two steel hoops that she danced with, spinning them around her hips and arms. There was a brief pause in the music, and she jumped up the side of the arena and grabbed Tufnut by the front of his shirt. I could see Skullette's teeth flashing in the torch light as she smiled. She pulled him down into the ring and resumed dancing. There was a pause where Tufnut just stood there, then slowly he started dance. It was sort of... Random, his dancing.  
They all left the ring when the song was done, and Tufnut came back muttering about weird girls. Rufnut elbowed him in the ribs and quipped "Great dancing. You almost passed as a human being." Snotlout rolled his eyes. His arm had somehow managed to get around my shoulders.  
"I'm going down." I whispered to him shrugging off his arm and grabbing a leaf from a nearby tree. Selena joined me, and we headed down to the entrance.  
"Hey Gobber! Great story. Hey listen, you think I could do something?" He smiled at my praise.  
"I don't know, can you?" I stuck out my tongue at him and sauntered in to the arena. I waved at everyone, then I made a guitar out of nearby wood, and used the leaf I grabbed to make strings. I took a few practice strums, then told Selena what song I wanted to play. She called the wind up, and started making piano sounds. The tune was simple. Dum dum dumdumdumdum babababa ba dum dum dumdumdumdum.  
I sang then.  
"five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear. five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights and cups of coffee. In inches, in miles in laughter and strife. In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year in a life all about love? All about love. Measure in love. Seasons of love. five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. five hundred twenty five thousand journeys to blame. five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. His do measure the life of a woman or man? In truth that she learned? In the times that he cried? In bridges he burned, or the way that he died? It's time now to sing out, though the story never ends. It's time to celebrate, remember a day in the life of a friend. Measure your life I love." I knew the song so well, the words just flowed off my tongue, and the chords seemed to pluck themselves off my makeshift guitar.  
Everyone had gotten a ton of applause, but I was the only one who got a standing ovation. Selena bumped me with her nose, and I patted her star. We exited the arena and met up with he others.  
"That was great, babe." said Snontlout, throwing his arm around my shoulders. I placed my hand squarely over the centre of his face and pushed him off.  
"Guess who's not just here to be a trophy girl? Oh, I know. Me." I knew from his tone and the 'babe' comment he was just showing off to his buddies.  
"Oh diss." jeered the twins.  
Snotlout looked a little hurt, but he'd get over it.

Later that night, i was sitting facing the sea with my back to a boulder, talking to Selena and trying to sort out my feelings for Snotlout.  
"Things I knew:  
1. I love him. Plain and simple.  
2. I can't live without him.  
3. In all his past lives, he ended up falling for Tasma.  
4. He always left me alone.  
Things I didn't know:  
1. How he feels about me  
2. How to stop Tasma from using him to get to me  
3. How to keep him alive."  
Selena lay down beside me, placing her head in my lap and making a low, comforting hum. I set down my guitar, and started running my nails along the spot behind her horns that she loved to have scratched so much.  
All of a sudden, she sat up and narrowed her eyes at a rock a little ways off from us. I sighed.  
"How much did you hear, Snotty?" Snotlout pulled himself up from behind his rock, trying to preserve whatever dignity he had left.  
"Enough," he grinned. "You said you loved me!" I practically facepalmed.  
"That's the only part that made it through your skull? Boys!" Selena rolled her eyes and moved off to give us a little privacy.  
He shrugged. "well you also said you didn't know how I feel," he lay down on his side next to me. "and I'm trying to figure that out, too." I slid down until I was facing him.  
"Yeah? You get the part about you always choosing Tasma over me and getting yourself killed? You always do that, and leave me alone." that was the part that bothered me the most. The fact that no matter how much I warned him, and tried to protect him, he always ended up dying and leaving me to face the world alone. It wasn't that I couldn't handle it - because I could - as it was the fact that I wasn't [I] supposed[/I] to be facing it alone. I knew it wasn't his fault, but Snotlout was the only one there, and Tasma was god knows where instigating a war.  
Snotlout look a little hurt, but he quickly regained his cocky demeanor. "So, what now?" I rolled onto my back, gazing thoughtfully up at the stars.  
"Now you tell me how you feel. Spill."  
I glanced at him, and he looked quite shocked. "A viking talking about feelings? Stupid idea."  
I glared at him. He instantly backpedalled. "Uh, the idea isn't stupid, it's just- erm- ah-"  
"Save it." I muttered, looking back up at the stars. "It was a bad idea anyway."  
Snotlout shifted his weight, then said slightly awkwardly  
"I suppose I'm just confused. You show up out of nowhere, and start stirring things up. You say I have past lives, and I remember I have past lives. You bend the elements to your will. You say that Tasma keeps doing something to me, but I don't remember anything about it!" He was getting more and more agitated. I brushed a bit of hair out of my face.  
"You sure you want to know what Tasma does to you?" he nodded. I had always tried to protect him from the truth, by now he needed to know. "She is a psychic, capable of brainwashing. I think I told you this already. She always, always manages to get to you and convince you that either I'm cheating on you, or that you love her, not me.  
"I don't blame you for being brainwashed; you can't help it. The bit that bothers me is that you always try to kill me, and I'm not sure whether you're brainwashed or not." If he looked confused before, he was far more confused now.  
"I tried to kill you?" he bit his lower lip. "I couldn't even imagine doing that." I smiled a bit. That was reassuring. He seemed to see something in my eyes, and got completely caught up in them. He leaned forwards, slowly, giving me plenty of time to remove myself from the vicinity. I just closed that gap between us, wrapping my arm around him, and pressing my lips against his.

Snotlout woke up with Jacinda's head resting on his chest. After they had kissed (it was a good kiss) they had talked. About what their favorite colours were, what they ultimately they wanted to do with their lives, things like that. They had fallen asleep when Fire showed up and him and Selena started cooing at each other. The vikings had rolled their eyes, and Jacinda had muttered something about how uncomfortable a pillow of rocks were. Snotlout had suggested she use his arm as a pillow, but apparently she'd rather use his chest.  
He moved his arm and put it around Jacinda.  
He still couldn't believe that she said he had tried to kill her. Right now, at least, it was unthinkable. He felt like if she ever died, his life wouldn't be worth living. Like the sense of purpose he had found since meeting Jacinda would slip through his fingers like tendrils of fog.  
The dragons shifted and stood up, stretching out kinks in their spines. Selena caught sight of Jacinda laying on Snotlout's chest and seemed to smile. Fire nudged her with his nose, gesturing with his wings towards the open sky beyond the cliff. Selena did a rung take off, Fire a few strides behind her. They rolled around and wrestled playfully in the air. At least some one's relationship was simple and clear.  
Jacinda shifted and opened her eyes. "Morning, sleepy head!" Snotlout said, tousling her hair. Her hand caught his and removed it from her mane of goldy hair.  
"You no touch. Mitts off. Leme 'lone" she said, half asleep.  
Snotlout rolled his eyes. "I suppose that means you don't want to come with me to the party tonight?" that got her attention.  
"Party? What party? We JUST had a party." she sat up, turning to look at him. Snotlout rolled his eyes.  
"yeah, but the adults were there. All the teens are getting together tonight and having an amazing dance party for you,"  
Selena landed next to them and tilted her head to the side curiously. "And you, too." he patted Selena on the nose.  
Jacinda sighed and stood up, extending a hand to help Snotlout up.  
"I suppose that if the party's for me, I might as well come." she said with a grin. Snotlout reached up and took her hand.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclamer: I'm getting bored with saying this!  
Dragongirl: *whacks Disclaimer* shaddup and say it!  
Disclaimer: Fine. This psycho doesn't own anything or anyone except Jacinda and Selena. There, you happy?  
Dragongirl: ^_^ Yes**

Everyone was already at the party when we arrived. It was at the valley that Hiccup had found Toothless, there was a pile of wood ready to become a fire, and a stage with several roughhewn instruments on it. Again, when Selena landed with me, she did so lightly, and when Fire landed with Snotlout, there was a huge thud.

We got off our dragons, and everyone was whistling and cheering. I smiled. There was Rufnut (no sign of Tufnut, probably getting Skullie) Astrid and Hiccup, a bunch of other vikings I hadn't met, along with Snotlout and I. All their dragons were here as well. Toothless came up to Selena and sniffed her inquisitively, and Fire snarled at him. Selena shot him a reproving look and let Toothless finish saying hello. I couldn't help but laugh at Fire's expression.

Toothless sat back on his haunches and did his weird grinning thing.

"You ready to get this party started?" hollered one of the vikings I didn't know. He noticed me glancing his way and winked at me. I laughed, but thankfully Snotlout had been temporarily distracted by keeping his dragon off Toothless.

Astrid got up on the makeshift stage, and took up the crooked drumsticks. That drum would never sound right, so I asked her if she would like me to fine-tune them for her, and she nodded. I called on my rock shifting powers and changed the shape of each drum. I did that, and made other changes to all the instruments on stage.

Once I finished, all the players waved and thanked me, and started playing right away.

I went to the wood, obviously stacked for a fire, and saw a Nader about to light it. Selena bumped him out of her way. Everyone watched in silence as the dragon with no mouth proceeded to have a ball of purple fire hovering above her star, then cast it at the pile of twigs which instantly caught and cast a beautiful purple glow over the party. I was almost back to Snotlout, Hiccup, and Rufnut, when the boy who had winked at me grabbed me by the arm and swung me so my back was to a tree with his arms on either side of me, holding me in.

"Hey, hot stuff. I'm Billy, I'd like to get to know you better."

Before I could say anything (or break his nose), Snotlout was there, dragging him off me.

"What did you say to her?" Snotlout said in a dangerous voice.

Billy pulled at his collar uncomfortably. Understandable since he was suspended with his feet two feet of the ground in Snotlout's ham sized fist.

"I just- I mean- what-?" The band had stopped playing the moment they realized something was going on.

Snotlout snarled and threw Billy at the nearest tree, barely missing.

Rufnut leaned towards Hiccup. "He must be really angry to miss the tree. He's normally a decent shot." Hiccup nodded. Before things got too out of hand, I ran up to Snotlout, who had started striding towards the groaning pile next to the tree, and place a hand on his arm. Some part of me noticed the way his muscles ripples under my hand, but the other part was focused on calming him down.

"Snotlout. Please. Stop." I think it was the 'please' that snapped him out of it, but I could be wrong.

He looked down at me, and for the first time I realized that he was a head taller than me. His eyes, which had been icy a moment before, warmed a bit, and the tenseness in his shoulders relaxed. Billy got up and ran to his Groncle, flying off somewhere, probably back to the village.

The band started playing again, something with a good beat you could really dance to. Tufnut, riding his Zippleback, landed a few feet off, and  
gestured for me to come over. I gave Snotlout a quick kiss on the cheek, whispering "I'll be right back" and jogging over to Tufnut.

"I saw that!" he said, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Yeah, yeah," I kicked him in the shin. "What is it?" he winced and rubbed his shin, then his zippleback reached around and pulled a boy off the his back.

"Skullette told me to bring this to you? Something about fasma or something?" I clenched my jaw, and someone dropped a hand onto my shoulder. It was Snotlout. How had he managed to sneak up on me like that? I'd think about it later. I'd deal with this scrawny thing first.

"Thank you, Tufnut. I'll take care of this now." Tufnut ran off, followed by his sister, and pushed through the crowd that had formed around me. I grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt and dragged him into the clearing, and everyone formed a circle around us, wondering what was going on. They all knew about Tasma and her Viking army that was coming, so I didn't need to fill in there.

"Let's start with the basics. Who are you?" I asked the boy, cowering at my feet.

Quaking, he said "Whacko?" like it was a question. Snotlout stiffened.

"You calling her whacko, punk?" I rested a hand on his arm and calmed him.

"That's his name. Definitely Irish. Why are you here?"

"I can't tell you-"

Selena pushed her way through the crowd and took up a defensive stance beside me. I brushed a hand along her side and both our eyes lit purple from the power crackling between us.

"Not talking isn't an option" Whacko looked suitably terrified, so I let my eyes fade back to their normal colour.

Skullette appeared besides me. "I suggest breaking a couple of his bones," she said. I snorted.

"Not yet. But it might come to that." the boys eyes widened.

"I'll tell whatever you want to know! Just don't hurt me, oh beautiful and wise goddess!" he was shivering uncontrollably. I felt sorry for the guy,  
but Snotlout's temper was flaring up and it was all I could do to keep him calm and Whacko scared enough to talk.

"Snotlout! Calm down!" he was snorting like a racehorse, death in his gaze. "Someone, get Snotty a rock to take his temper out on."

Tufnut produced a small boulder that Snotlout instantly crushed to a fine powder. He was still extremely angry, but he seemed better than before.  
"So," I said, turning my attention back to Whacko. "Why are you here?" he gulped

"Because Tasma wants me here. And if you disobey Tasma, you lose your fingers one by one."

I rolled my eyes. "When is your tribe going to get here?"

He curled up into a ball and didn't say anything. At that point, everyone started yelling out ways to get the information out of him.

"Throw him in the fire!"

"Give him to the dragons!"

"POKE HIM!"

Silence fell.

"Bob. Go sled while carrying a Terrible Terror and a hitting you head with a rock. Do it a hundred times." said a random viking boy, and Bob nodded and ran off up the mountain.

Snotlout had crushed a second boulder, and was lucid enough this time to make a suggestion.

"Send him back to the village for the adults to deal with. We're supposed to be having fun." Everyone sent up a big cheer, and Whacko was tied to Fire with a note gagging the boy, and flew him back to the village.

The band started playing again, a slow song this time. All the boys, including Snotlout tried to drift to the outer edges of the valley, only to be pulled back to the centre by their dates. Snotlout no exception.

"You know how to slow dance?" I asked, smiling at him as he adjusted his tunic.

"I- I mean- I- uhhh-" I put a finger to his lips.

"Put your hands on my waist," he did, and I put my arms around his neck and pulled him close. "Now just move to the music. It might take a bit, but you'll get the hang of it." I rested my head on his shoulder as I started swaying from side to side, and he got the hang of it. I glanced around  
and saw everyone else had taken my lead, dancing in the same way we were.

When the song ended, everyone separated and clapped for the band as they transitioned into a faster song.

...

"That was so rad!" hollered Rufnut as she ran a ways a head of us. Hiccup and Astrid were a little behind Snotlout and I, holding hands. Tufnut and Skullette were nowhere to be found. Snotlout tentatively put an arm around my waist, waiting to see if I'd smack him or not. I just leaned into him and put my head on his shoulder.

"I hope you know I'd have broken Billy's nose if he didn't back off." I whispered to him. He nodded.

"I just couldn't stand seeing him so close to you. And that Whacko guy could have hurt you," he frowned. "I just want to keep you safe."

"Awwwww, so sweet!" chimed Rufnut, popping out from behind a bush and darting away so fast that Snotlout's fist swung through empty air.

All our dragons chose this moment to flop out of the sky onto the ground, panting from the acrobatics they had just been doing.

We were walking back to town on a path that took a slightly longer to get back on than the path the rest of the vikings were taking.  
Tufnut ran up behind us, tackling his sister from behind.

"Miss me, dragon butt?"

"You wish, fire breath!"

We all burst out laughing. Their Zippleback ran up and started nosing them in their sides, causing them to roll around laughing.

...

The walk was peaceful, quiet, then a big purple Nader crashes in front of us. I couldn't see for a moment, because Snotlout had pulled me back. But then Skullette was standing in front of me, her hands on my shoulders, shaking me.

"JacindaohgreatOdin'!"

I grabbed her by the elbows and stopped the shaking.

"Skullette. I can't understand you. Slow down."

Completely ignoring me, she kept on shrieking. "JACINDAYOUSHOUKDHAVESEENTHEM! TheywerelikenothingI''s"

Snotlout gently removed her hands from my shoulders. "Thanks. I was losing feeling." I turned back to Skullette.

"Seriously Jacinda, I might have exaggerated that the bears were going to eat me, but the rest is true. The ships were not viking ones. Not by a long shot, and there were giant bears. They were as big as one of the small houses in the village!"

"You've gotta be joking." Rufnut said.

"You think that all that was for a joke?" Tufnut replied.

"Good point..." Rufnut said, looking slightly more thoughtful than was normal. "And that was unusually serious. What did you do, get a clone? And then have that clone replace you because it grew a brain?"

Hiccup and Astrid came up behind us. "Forgive me for being out of the loop, but who is Tasma?" Hiccup asked. You could here the crickets chirp.

"Where the heck were you at the town meeting earlier today?" asked Rufnut incredulously.

"We got... Distracted." Astrid said, blushing so bright I swear it lit-up the trees halfway down the path.

"And that didn't sound suggestive at all. What were you doing, preparing for marriage?"

"Rufnut? Not that I wouldn't have said that myself, but that wasn't the wisest move. Astrid looks like she wants to kill you."

"First off, she's supposed to. And second, you are DEFINETLY a clone."

Before Tufnut could reply, I intervened. "Guys. Guys! Do I need to remind you that we have a problem here? We need to town. NOW."

"Aye aye captain!" said Skullette with a grin.

Just then, Fishlegs came bursting out of the bushes.

"Guys. GUYS! There's this kid who dropped in town, and he says Tasma's on her way!" the crickets chirped again.

"Well? We already know. You were at the party, how could you not know about wacko being there?" said Astrid

"Well... I was reading"

Snotlout and the twins inched away from the large boy, and Skullette appeared interested.

"What were you reading?"

"The Dragon Manual."

"He was WRITTING in it!" exclaimed Rufnut.

"Oh Thor."

I sighed. "Well, I'm going to go. You guys can stay here and talk about books if you want." I swung myself onto Selena. There was burst of activity as everyone rushed to their dragons, and Snotlout grabbed Fishlegs by the elbow and threw him onto Fire's back.

Every one ran to their dragons, who had been watching the exchange interestedly from the trail. We took off one by one, first Astrid and Hiccup (because we decided they couldn't be trusted at the back), then the twins and Skullette, followed by me, with Snotlout, and Fishlegs bringing up the rear.

The dragons obviously knew what was going on, and we arrived just as the other group of teens were exiting the forest. Toothless landed right next to the emergency assembly bell that Hiccup immediately rang.

We all made our way down to the centre of the arena as vikings started trickling into the grandstands.

Everyone looked like they had just gotten out of bed, that's when I realized what time it was. Well, late didn't quite cover it. Early, more like it.

As soon as everyone was seated, I gestured for Skullette to tell them what she saw. As soon she stepped forwards, a murmur ran through the group, a couple people called out.

She stood firm, and gave the vikings a brief version of what she had told us, adding on that there were roughly twenty ships, twenty bears, and a thousand vikings. Stoik called for everyone to ready their dragons.

"Everybody hold it!" I hollered.

Once everyone rushed back into the arena, I started explaining Selena's dragon magic. "Remember how I told you that Selena can ask the dragons to do something and they can choose whether to do it or not? Well she can call all the dragons around the world to her, and they will come to her aid. If only because if the earth dragon dies, eventually the world will follow." dead silence.

"Do I need to add more pages to the dragon manual?" Fishlegs asked. I smiled a little at him.

"Might not be a bad idea." a viking in the crowd raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"What exactly does calling on all the dragons mean?"

Selena made a snorting sound.

"Selena will use her powers to send out a global message to all dragons, and they will come to our aid. This message will be sent in a wave of purple energy, and Selena will mark the island as the destination by lighting a huge fire in the centre of town, and one more thing. You can't kill the enemy vikings. They aren't at fault. It's Tasma you want dead."

...

Everyone gathered in the centre of town in a circle around Selena and I. Selena had her eyes closed, calling on all her energy. I placed a hand on the side of her neck, lending her my energy.

When she opened her eyes, they were glowing purple, and a haze the same shade had gathered above her forehead. With a loud bang, the haze formed a sphere, and then, with a grunt, Selena let it go, and it spread in all directions as a wave of purple energy. Then she made a purple fire, bigger than the one at the party, and nudged it way up into the air, where it hovered and grew in size until it was about the size of her.

...

Later that night, I was out in the forest with Snotlout; our dragons were back at the village, talking to the other dragons of the town.

"I think you should leave," Snotlout burst out. "It's not safe for you here." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm safest wherever you are. And I can take care of myself."

Snotlout shook his head. "What if I can't protect you. What if I won't. What if I don't [I]want[/I] you here?" I blinked.

"You don't want me here?" my voice sounded small. Snotlout nodded.

"You'd just get underfoot. And besides, I never really loved you," It felt like he had ran me through with a sword. I vaguely realized he was still talking. Something about 'How could I?' and 'Nothing but an ungrateful slime in all my past lives.' I looked up at him with pleading eyes, only to meet his stony ones.

"Really?" I whispered. He nodded. I ran. Somehow I got back to town and ran right to Selena, tears dripping down my face. She jumped up, looking for a threat, and I just jumped into the saddle and stuck my heels into her sides.

"We're leaving." I placed my hand on her neck right in front of me, forcing the memories of what just happened to the surface so she could see them. "Please?"

She took off.

Fire looked extremely confused, and took off to follow us, and Selena turned her head towards him and made an angry sharp sound. The poor dragon fell back to the island looking more confused than he had ever been his entire life.

As we were flying away, I heard Skullette yelling at me.

"Jacinda, where are you going? We need you! SNOTLOUT needs you!"

I closed my eyes as the tears dried onto my cheeks.

"No he doesn't." I whispered to the wind.

...

As soon as Jacinda left, Snotlout sank to the ground and started crying. He was a viking! Vikings never cry! But here he was.

It had been the hardest thing he had ever had to do, send her away like that. But he had to. She would have died if she stayed.  
She looked so sad, so broken. He felt like she had looked

Then something hit the back of his head. Hard.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER YOU IDIOT?" it was Skullette.

Snotlout pulled himself to his feet. "I did what u had to do to keep her safe."

Skullette pulled him into a hug and muttered in his ear. "Yeah, but you're still an idiot."

Snotlout hugged her back, because he had no one else to hang on to.

"Well it didn't take you long to move on. Jacinda isn't even gone for twenty seconds and you're making a move on my girl."

After about three seconds of dead silence, Snotlout tackled Tufnut.

"Dude, it's true!"

"Tufnut, I initiated the hug." Tufnut paused.

"Skullette... His could you do this to me?" Snotlout managed to get Tufnut in a headlock.

"I was comforting him you idiot. I'm allowed to comfort my friends. And if not, I'll either beat you up or break up with you. Or both. Snotlout, get off him. We have to get ready for the K.O. Session."

Snotlout was still extremely upset, and each time someone said Jacinda's name, he got closer and closer to snapping.

"I'll deal with you later." he growled at Tufnut.

"Just like Jacinda is going to deal with you later." he replied.

"You are so dead for that, even if it's true."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: *hides from Dragongirl* I'M NOT GOING TO SAY IT!  
Dragongirl: *snarls* Like hell you're not!  
Disclaimer: Dragongirldoesn'!  
Dragongirl:...  
Disclaimer: I'm still alive?**

****

**

* * *

**

We'd been flying for a long time now, and the sun was directly overhead. Now, we had been flying for a long time, but I was pretty sure Selena was flying us in a huge circle around the island. I didn't care.

"He said he didn't love me." I said to Selena. We had a special connection which allowed her to 'speak' to me with her thoughts.

_You believe him so easily?_ She asked in her chime-like mental voice. I pressed my face into her neck and nodded.

"He was so sure he never loved me." I felt like the wound Snotlout had opened in my chest was being torn wider.

_So you're just going to let him die again? See if he comes back with a better name? Maybe he'll be called Footfungus or something. I thought we agreed that this time he wasn't going to die?_

All of a sudden, the sound of a thousand wingbeats filled the air. Wait a second. That's more than a thousand. I could see millions of tiny dots heading towards Selena and I.

"The dragons." I whispered. Selena nodded.

_You going to let him die again? Or are you going to do something?_ I stared as the dragons got closer and closer. I had seen them all, knew them by name. The Japanese Kori, with long, snake-like bodies, European Ungera with huge, think tree trunk legs and fire that could burn a forest in five minutes. So many had answered the call. So many. Maybe there was hope.

"Let's fly." I said, newfound determination in my voice.

Selena smiled, not smugly, but like she knew I'd make the right decision. We turned around and joined the other dragons flying towards Berk.

The fight would have started already, but maybe we'd get there in time. Selena used her hums to communicate the necessity of not killing anyone except the bears in this fight. The Vikings were either Snotlout's people, or had no control over their actions. The bears, on the other hand, were animals, operating on instincts. They might have been given a nudge by Tasma to obey her fighters wishes, but once the fighting started, they'd kill anything in their path.

Berk was coming in sight, covered with roiling masses of humans, bears, and dragons.

A Chinese sea dragon poked it's head above the water and gave a mighty roar that was quickly picked up by all the dragons that I could see. Now, I could see the dragons hadn't been in a line, but a huge circle around the island.

"We got this!" I said to Selena.

_Yes, we do._ she chimed.

…

As soon as the dragons had roared, the vikings of Berk had sent up a huge cheer. While the other vikings and enemy soldiers were caught up with looking at the huge and fierce fighting dragons, Snotlout's gaze instantly picked out the pale brown dragon flying in from the south side of the island. Well this was horrible. He thought he had convinced her to leave; so she'd be safe. Apparently not. He was about to run to the place where Jacinda would most likely land (the docks), but found himself running past the docks, and onto a boat that was different from the other huge triple masted war boats the other vikings had come in. This particular boat was encrusted with red paint and gold leaf, and was strangely empty.

Until he got to the captains quarters.

"Hello, Ark. Welcome to my ship."

...

Selena was the first dragon to land, and did so on the docks. The sea serpents pulled themselves out of the water, snarling and spitting sparks and hissing gouts of steaming water. A little less than half of the other dragons dropped down onto the huge bears, forcing them to their knees, biting at their necks through the thick fur. The others started to snap at the brainwashed soldiers, spitting spouts of fire at the ground. Selena took off up the dock, running straight into the fray, using the ground beneath her claws to trap several hundred Vikings in eggs made of rock.

I jumped off her back and pulled water from the ocean to swirl menacingly beside me. I threw myself into the fight, using the water to smash vikings out of my way. I made it over to the twins and hollered in Rufnut's ear.

"Where's Snotlout?" a viking almost managed to use his axe on me, but I encased him in water before he could. I caught sight of Selena and Fire fighting together, tails twisted together. At least THAT relationship was intact.

"We lost sight of him a while ago. Do you know how hard it is to stay focused on one person in this and not die?" It was a rhetorical question.

"Thanks anyway." I moved around a bit, and noticed that the tide of the fight was turning in our favor, the enemy vikings being subdued and bears either dying or dead. I couldn't see Snotlout anywh- Tasma! How could I forget?

I turned back to the docks and saw her ship.

...

I burst into Tasma's quarters, ready to tear her apart if she had so much as touched Snotlout.

The boy in question was standing next to Tasma, eyes glowing and unnatural pink light. Just seeing him made the psychological pain in my chest flare again.

"So nice of you to join us," Purred Tasma. She looked different than the last time I saw her. Thinner. She had the same blonde hair, same perfect nails, same unnaturally pink/red eyes, but her bones were very clearly showing. "I thought you were going to miss the party."

My eyes were locked on Snotlout. "Snotlout?" I whispered. No response. The same stoic expression on his face, eyes radiating that pink light.

"You always lose. Why did you expect this time to be different?" Tasma said in that annoyingly calm voice.

"You [edit]! Why can't you just let me be happy? Why can't you stop the death and destruction? You know what I never understood? How someone could hate so forcefully that it drives them to create so much havoc!"

She sneered at me. "You know why I do what I do? I do it because you stole my destiny. I was supposed to be the Earth Dragons partner. But those _stupid_ Night Furies chose you instead," Tasma had never given this much away before. She always remained cool, calm, and in control. Obviously she was getting sick of this, too. "When I was old enough to understand what the markings on my arms were, I set out, trying to find the earth dragon," I knew of the marks she was talking about. One on each arm; a mark that was shaped like the continents, and on the other arm, a skull. As far as I knew, the skull was a symbol of the psychic powers she had been filled with. I had no idea what the continents meant, until now. "Instead of the Earth Dragon, I found the shamans of Europe. They taught me how to read and control others minds, and to thank them, I used them to steal the secret to eternal life. They died, but after giving me the scroll. When I found out that the one who had stolen my position was back in Berk, I couldn't help it. I had to kill her. But what would cause her as much pain as she had caused me? Killing her soulmate over and over again of course," I was slowly bending the wood behind her into spears. Tasma was getting a wild look in her eyes. "Well this is the last time you'll have to deal with anything like that. I'm done. This time, you both die!" she pointed a bony finger at me.

I felt the weight of her mind pressing in on me, but I was immune to that. I gave a weak smirk.

"I thought we'd discussed this last time. Your mind tricks don't work on me." Tasma gave a shriek of pure rage.

"Finish her!" Snotlout's eyes flared brighter, and he headed towards me with a small hand sword.

"Snotlout?" no response. "Snotlout! I know that you might not love me, but I love you. I don't want you to die, and I know you don't want to kill me." he faltered, stumbling over his own feet as his eyes flickered between their normal colour and that weird pink.

Tasma's face contorted with rage. "Finish her. NOW!" Snotlout's eyes flared back to blue again.

He was only a few feet from me. I didn't want to hurt him. I looked deep into his eyes, seeing him throughout the ages. All the things he had seen, that we had done together. His deaths. What we could have been. I couldn't kill him to save myself.

"Please?"

They were brown just long enough for him to say "Jacin-" then they were pink and his knife slid into my stomach. His eyes widened in horror and went back to brown, and he pulled the knife out of me. I fell to the floor.

Selena blasted the doors with purple fire and was suddenly knocking Snotlout out of the way, taking up a protective stance over top of me. I think she snarled, but I couldn't hear properly. I reached out a hand and touched her stomach and felt her giving me strength. As soon as the knife had slid into me, the shock had numbed everything, but now with all the energy Selena was giving me, the pain came back with vengeance. She moved so I could sit up, and I slowly turned to Tasma. The boat was burning with a purple flame. Snotlout was on the floor, looking at me with stricken eyes. I snapped my gaze away from him as Tasma cackled. She really had gone mad. It was sort of sad, in a twisted way. If she wasn't insane, she and I would have been friends.

"Well she's alive! That's depressing." she pouted a bit, crossing her arms. "Guards! Come protect me!" I stood, using Selena as a handhold.

"Don't you get it, Tasma? It's over. Your group is defeated. We win. You lose." I used my last dregs of energy to blast her with spears of wood until she looked like a porcupine. Then everything went black.

...

Snotlout was in complete and utter shock. He killed her. He stabbed Jacinda and now she was dead. He crawled over to her, ignoring the snarls from Selena until he could see her face.

Her eyes were shut. And the blood from the stab wound was covering her torso. Tears slid down Snotlout's face, and he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." he whispered, Not sure whether he was talking to Jacinda's corpse, or her snarling dragon. Selena snorted and her angry posture relaxed a bit. Fire ran in and found them like that, and he wrapped a wing around Selena and Snotlout.

She was dead. She had to be. There was no way anyone could lose that much blood and live. Was there?  
Snotlout didn't even notice when a bunch of other vikings ran in and commented that Jacinda was still breathing. He only reacted when they tried to take her from him.

"Nononono don't take her!"

Then someone smacked him upside the head with a board and he passed out.

…

When Snotlout came to, he was in a bed next to Jacinda in the infirmary. Nurses fussed over him, but he couldn't take his eyes off Jacinda.

Over the next few days, the only time he talked, it was to the nurses, to ask about Her condition. Skullette and Tufnut, along with the rest of his friends came by to talk to him, but Snotlout was so focused on Her, he didn't really register it. The only time he left the chair beside Jacinda's bed was to go to the bathroom. He was afraid to fall asleep, in case she woke up, so Snotlout slept only when it was strictly necessary.

His dad came by to try and convince him to come home, at least for a bit, but got nothing from the boy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Discclaimer: LAST CHAPTER! ! Yay! I'll never have to say that again! ^_^  
Dragongirl: I AM writting a sequel, but that'll take a while :'( Oh, and the companion story my friend wrote from Skullette's POV is up! It'll be in my favorites! :D**

I heard people moving around, but I couldn't see anything. Something touched my hand.

_Hmm. Short, thick, callused fingers. Rough palms. I wonder..._

I slowly opened my eyes and saw the roof of a thatch cottage. Well the afterlife was surprisingly comfortable. No fire or glaringly bright lights. I turned my head towards the hand that had slipped inside mine, and saw Snotlout. Concern and something else that I couldn't identify was in his eyes. I gave a faint smile.

"Hey." my voice was extremely rough and scratchy. Well, I really really hope this wasn't the afterlife, because that means I failed, and Snotlout died. It also meant that Selena had died too, and without the Earth Dragon, the world would fall into chaos.

"Hey." he didn't return my smile.

"Are we dead?" I asked.

He shook his head. "You came close." a strange look came over his face, and before I could ask him what he meant, a gaggle of nurses came up and pushed him out of the way. They were checking my vitals and adjusting bandages wrapped around my torso, and putting gooky stuff on my burns.

"You gave us quite a scare, Missy. Luckily for you, your wonderful dragon was here, helping us fix you." I caught sight of Snotlout slipping out, and the 'wonderful dragon' pushed her way through the group of women and nuzzled against me, her tail scraping back and forth across the floor happily.

"Hey girl." my voice was a little less scratchy, and I cleared my throat. "Whatcha been up to?" I asked, rubbing the spot where her head joined her neck. She glanced out the door where she had come in, and I saw Fire peering in. I turned to one of the ladies checking my pulse.

"How long have I been out?" the nurse removed her thumb from my wrist.

"About a week, miss."

"And when can I leave?"

The lady turned to the oldest one there, obviously the one in charge.

"Well," she said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "As long as you're feeling okay, this time tomorrow." I nodded and closed my eyes, still scratching Selena in her favorite spot.

Eventually, the ladies left, and I kept waiting for some sign that Snotlout had returned, but I heard nothing. Of course not. Why would he? He hated me. Stupid, forgetful...

The wound Snotlout had opened in my chest (the one he HADN'T used the knife for) started aching again. My hand fell from Selena's jaw, and she rested her head by my feet

_He's been here the whole week, you know._

"Excuse me? Why would he?"

_I don't know. Oh wait, maybe he loves you. Or maybe there's something else going on in his brain that neither of us can't understand. Why are you asking me?_

"You're supposed to be the all-powerful, all-knowing, element-bending, kick-butt dragon!"

...

Once they let me out the next day, bandages wrapped around my mid-section and small cuts and bruises on my arms and hands, I went looking for Snotlout.

Selena was fooling around with Toothless and Astrid's Nader, tossing a large lime green fish around in the air. She ran over to me and nudged me towards the forest. She gave me a solid push and watched me walk into the forest before going back to her game.

I found Snotlout sitting in the clearing we had our first talk in, his back to that same log. I sat down beside him.

"You know, Jacinda-"

"I really need to talk-" We started to talk at the same time. We fell silent for a few seconds.

"Go ahead." he said, and I took a deep breath.

"I just wanted you to know," I said in a slightly shaky voice. "That no matter how much you hate me, or think I'm annoying, I will always love you. Always have. Always will; to use the cliché." I hadn't realized it, but my hands had made fists digging into the dirt. I un-clamped my hands from the dirt, and glanced up at him: Snotlout was looking incredulously at me.

"You think- I was- I wasn't- I love you, too, Jacinda. I needed you to be safe, that's why I tried to send you away," He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me. I was so surprised, and it took a moment for me to start kissing back. It must have been about a minute, but it felt like an hour later that we separated lips, and I lay my head on his chest.

"I couldn't believe you bought it so easily. I thought I'd have to do so much more to convince you."

"I've been alone so long; I forgot what it meant to be loved without question. I thought you were telling the truth because you had no reason to lie," Snotlout rubbed a hand along my back and pressed his face into my hair. "And it ended something like that in most of your lives."

"I am so, so sorry for leaving you alone all those times. And if I could, I'd take it all back. I can't remember much of it, though." I sat up and pushed myself a little away from him.

"Oh, I owe you something." he raised both eyebrows.

I slapped him. Hard.

"That was for lying to me and making me feel like a worthless toe rag." Snotlout winced and put a hand to his cheek.

"I suppose I deserved that." the said bashfully.

"You suppose?" I raised an eyebrow, pulling out of his arms and standing up.

He stood up, too.

"Alright, alright. I deserved it." I nodded and grinned.

"Now catch me!" I was halfway across the valley when he finally started running after me. I was faster, but he had more endurance. It was only a matter of time before Snotlout caught up with me and knocked me to the ground. We were both gasping for air, and laughing with whatever air we _did _get.  
Snotlout rolled off me and we lay side by side until or laughter subsided.

"So, we good?" he wanted to know.

I nodded. "I think so. Just don't do anything extremely stupid, like convincing me that you hate me to protect me. Oh wait..."

He took my hand. "Yeah yeah, I was stupid. Can we move on?"

I put a finger to my chin and pondered for a minute.

"We'll see." we lay there in silence for a while, just watching the clouds blow over the clear blue sky. I made a terrible terror out of a small one, and it floated away over the village. Then I made a bigger version of Snotlout, with a big mustache.

"Never grow a mustache. Or a beard. Pretty please?"

He laughed. "Why not? All vikings have a beard or mustache. At least the guy ones. Though I always wondered about Ethel…" I poked him in the side.

"I won't kiss you if you've got a dead rat on your face." the cloud broke up before people in town could see it.

He sighed. "Alright, you win this one." I smirked.

"Don't I always? You want to fly without a dragon?"

"Well that wasn't random at all," he snorted. "Sure."

"Hold on, ees gonna be a bumpay ride!" He wove his fingers with mine, and I raised a spur of rock to catapult us into the air, then caught us with the wind.

I raised us up to the cloud line, and I loosened my grip on Snotlout's hand slightly as we leaned forward. He instinctively clutched harder at my hand.

"Relax. Let yourself move with the wind, not against it."

I glanced over and saw him gulp. He did loosen his grip again, though. We leaned forward and started moving out towards the ocean.

We passed through a cloud, and Snotlout tried to grab onto bits and pieces of it as we passes.  
Once we were over the choppy waves, I brought two clouds over, and we 'sat' on them, cross-legged, facing each other.

"So you want to tell me what I missed?"

We had both our hands clasped together in the open air between us.

"After you... Passed out, I thought you were dead. The only way they could get you from me was to knock me out.  
"When I came to, all the vikings had turned back to normal, and were wondering why the heck they were on Berk,"

I nodded, after a thorough brainwashing, the after-effect was that you didn't remember much if anything about what had happened.

"Well, dragons were EVERYWHERE, and Hiccup and Fishlegs were running around like crazy people, trying to write down information about them all. Once the Vikings had been sorted out and sent back home on their ships, the dragons started leaving. As for the bears? Well, I think that we're going to have way more food than necessary this winter." I smirked.

"The way you guys eat? I'm thinking January, tops."

"You're on!" he said. I twirled my cloud around and bumped it up against Snotlout so my head was resting on his shoulder. For some reason, that particular part of his upper torso was really comfy.

"Oh. I need to tell you something," He wrapped his arms around my stomach. "You're never gonna die," I felt him stiffen. "You'll live as long as I will, and you'll come with me, Selena, and Fire to... Wherever the heck we go when our thousand years is up."

Snotlout and I sat in silence, Snotlout playing with my hair.

"You mean I'll have to put up with you forever?" he said, breaking the silence. I could feel him smiling into my hair.

"I suppose you will."

"Oh, the finishing touches were put on your house two days ago. It's all ready for you to move into."

"Well, in that case. You'll just have to help me bring all my stuff from my cave to this new house!"

He groaned. "Why me?"

"Because you're my boyfriend. Durr." I smacked his knee and pulled him to his feet. He spun me around and kissed me on my forehead. It was nice. I buried my nose in his neck.

"Has anyone ever told you you smell like dirt and grass? Cos you do."

"Thank you...?"

I pulled out of his hug and whistled, two dragons flew up from Berk.

"Catch me if you can!" I jumped onto Selena's back as she flew by, Fire stopping so Snotlout could get on.

We raced back to my old home, to pick up things from my old life. The only reason I bothered was that each and every item in that cave reminded me of my time without Him, and I wanted to remember the darkness before he lit it up for good.

**R&R please!**


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